


the mer au

by anothersadsong



Series: snippets [10]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: F/M, clearly they are bonded now, even though they are from two different worlds, human jyn, merman cassian, the mer au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 19:31:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17028651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothersadsong/pseuds/anothersadsong





	the mer au

Jyn was eighteen. Cassian thought he might be twenty-three. She had been coming to the shore every day since she was old enough to remember, hoping for a glimpse of the boy with the kind dark eyes and the vibrant red tail who had pulled her out from the waves when she was a child, saving her from drowning, and saving her parents from the loss of their only child.

Cassian had come to the shore as often as he could sneak away, hoping for a glimpse of the girl with the green eyes, who had seen him, actually seen him, and hadn’t been afraid.

And once they’d come together, there was no keeping them apart, the boy from the sea and the girl from the land and the inextricable bond they’d formed in one bright, shining moment when he’d reached for her hand, pulled her to the surface and helped her breathe.

He had become her closest friend and her only confidante, and she loved him with every beat of her heart.

They sunbathed together on the large, flat rocks closest to shore, and he held his breath every time she dared to reach out with gentle, trembling fingers to touch wonderingly at his scales, shining so brightly in the sun. She swallowed hard and tried to keep still as he experimentally tickled the soles of her feet.

And she didn’t even mind when he slid gracefully back into the water whenever someone disturbed their peace.

“What are you doing out here, Jyn? You haven’t been inside all day”, her father asked, back from another long whaling trip that aged him deeply every time.

“I - there were dolphins. I fell asleep watching them.”

Suddenly, a red, red tailfin breached the surface, and Jyn couldn’t hide her pleased little smile.

“If it makes you happy, Stardust”, he replied, extending a hand. “Come now, before we’re late for dinner.”

He brought her presents from his home under the waves - shells, and pearls, and other shiny pretty things, and she stored them all away in a wooden chest underneath her bed, unaware that they were his people’s way of courting.

“What can I do for you?”, she’d asked once, and he’d smiled so sincerely at her that she thought her heart might fall into a thousand pieces. “What does a merman need?”

“You - ”, he replied, and shrugged a sun-warmed shoulder. “You like them. That’s enough.”

She read him her favorite books, and tried to explain the intricacies of the human world, and gave up entirely when he’d rolled his eyes and announced that humans were a peculiar lot. He was not wrong, after all.

He splashed at her and she ran away giggling madly, always to return to the water’s edge, where he beckoned her to join him. And he was the most patient tutor she’d ever had, helping her slowly learn to float, and then to swim. And on the warmest days, she stayed in the water until every toe and finger went wrinkly. She held on to his shoulders and he spun her around until they were both dizzy and laughing and completely, utterly happy.

And as she stared at those dark eyes, so full of affection for her, and the strong arms around her middle tightened just so, and in that moment, it felt like they were on the precipice of something momentous …

She kissed him.

And although they never spoke a word about the burgeoning emotions that excited and terrified them both, they knew that there was something there. But they shouldn’t speak on them, because they couldn’t, after all, act on those feelings.

What kind of life could they have together, after all, a human and a merman?

It just wasn’t meant to be.


End file.
